In middle school, Edward had someone pass Torrie a note during science class. A total creep, he talked about taking Torrie to a school dance and giving her chocolates on Valentine’s Day.

Eddie, as everyone used to call him in school, was a chubby pimple factory who was completely awkward.

Needless to say, Torrie passed the note around and made Edward the laughingstock of the eighth grade.

In high school, he became more of an outcast once the optometrist prescribed him glasses, as everyone started calling him “Fat Four Eyes.”

True to his infatuation, he never gave up on Torrie. By now, she had a reputation. With a few drunken orgies under her belt, Torrie was well-known around the school.

Edward was excited when he finally got her number after all these years. In the boy’s bathroom was a whole stall door dedicated to Torrie. Without a phone, he couldn’t pull out his pencil and paper fast enough when he read, “For the best blowjob in town, call Torrie at 910-808-8080.”

So many nights he’d masturbated thinking of Torrie and her clean-shaven pussy. But a portrait of her on this stall door showed her with a rather healthy bush around her vagina.

Hey, Edward wouldn’t mind a few pubes getting caught in his teeth.

That night, on his parents’ landline, he called Torrie and said, “Hey, I bet you don’t remember me.”

Racking her brain, she says, “No, I don’t, who is this?”

Nervous, Edward forces his own name to leave his lips. Torrie responded, “How did you get my number, loser?” and hangs up on him.

After that, they had one last meeting in high school when Edward made the mistake of asking Torrie to the prom around a crowd of jocks. Even the girls followed them into the boys’ room. They forced Edward’s head down in the toilet and flushed. When they pulled him up, half the school was dying with laughter.

Next, the guys all grabbed a handful of his Fruit of the Looms and yanked, giving Edward a wedgie so massive that he shit all over himself.

Out of every bright face, his brown eyes zeroed in on Torrie’s. Her shiny white teeth were fully exposed as she laughed harder than anyone. Honestly, she never looked as beautiful as when her dark hair bounced when she yelled for the guys to flush his ugly face again.

After that, Edward wouldn’t bother her anymore. For the first time, he saw common houseflies buzzing around instead of butterflies when he thought of her.

It was strange how his sexual fantasies of Torrie started to include duct tape, a hacksaw, and lots and lots of blood.

Edward carried those feelings of hatred around with him for years. His face cleared up and he lost weight just to end up the abusive boyfriend in a few different dysfunctional relationships.

He was thirty and working at a feed mill when social media reunited him with the past. With her dark hair in spiral curls, Torrie Lenox showed up in “People You May Know.”

Clicking on her profile, he read numerous posts where she ranted and raved, proving herself as white trash extraordinaire. Edward just knew she would deny his friend request. Much to his surprise, she accepted it quickly.

At the time, he was seeing someone, but all he could think of was waving in Torrie’s Messenger inbox. What would he say to this sexy, evil, and heartless bitch after all these years?

First things first: before he made any small talk, Edward had to get hard and pose for his greatest unsolicited dick pic ever. The poor guy took tons of photos before coming up with a decent one.

When Edward finally got up the nerve to send it, Torrie was quick to respond with a puking face emoji. Laughing, he thinks she’s a stuck-up cunt even after all these years.

Then she changed the game when she sent a message asking, “WYD?” Buzzed, it was two in the morning and Torrie had nothing better to do than entertain this loser.

Thinking back to her three abusive ex-husbands, two of which were currently serving time in the state penitentiary, Torrie figures this loser, Edward, has probably loved her more than any of them. Edward still had the hots for her. Maybe she should have given him a try. Hey, what better time than now?

Torrie was trading her body for a bed to sleep in already. Maybe she could get back on her feet with the right man. They talked for a few days and Edward decided to break up with his current woman, who had no problem with leaving.

It wasn’t long before he was driving out to the trailer park where Torrie was crashing for a few days. They stayed outside; she asked Edward for a cigarette, but he didn’t smoke.

Before asking if he could buy her a pack, Torrie tosses her hair and says, “You know, I’m sorry for being so mean to you back then.”

Edward says, “All is forgiven,” and tells Torrie to get inside his car so they can go get her those cigarettes. It was the last time anyone heard from her.

She wasn’t considerate and would often disappear without telling anyone. So this friend she was crashing with thought Torrie just ran off with another guy.

Everything was fine and she got her cigarettes, but then Edward pulled over in the cut. They got into a scuffle after he made several advances. Nothing they couldn’t get over; then she brought up calling the law.

Right away, Edward snatched her phone. As Torrie tried to unlock her door, he reached in the backseat and picked up a flashlight, striking her hard in the temple.

She wakes up hours later bound in rope and gagged. With a pistol in his hand, Edward paced back and forth muttering, “I might have to get rid of her,” over and over.

Struggling, her cries were muffled until Edward removed the gag. Right away, Torrie demands that he let her go!

Edward says, “Sorry for hitting you, this is all a big misunderstanding.”

She says, “Well, let me go then, you freak.”

Scratching his temple with the barrel of the gun, he says, “Remember? That’s what you used to call me back in second grade.”

Edward takes a deep breath. “If I let you go,” he says, “you’ll get me locked up. I don’t know if I can risk that.”

Sucking her teeth, Torrie says, “Oh, this? This is nothing. My baby daddy held me hostage for a week and beat the shit out of me every day. It’s kind of a turn-on with you having me tied up like this, but don’t you think we’d have more fun if you let me go?”

Licking her lips, Torrie says, “I’ll give you a blowjob.”

Edward said, “I always heard you give the best one in town.”

In his mind, he’d love to make this basement her home. Adopt her as a pet. But no; it would never work. At this stage in the abduction, Edward only wondered if he should shoot her with the pistol or take his sweet time and put in a little knife work.

Before all that, he got on Torrie’s phone. Thankfully, she kept herself logged into Facebook. Updating her status, Edward writes, “My ex-husband’s tripping again saying he’s gonna kill me if I don’t tell my momma to let him see our daughter.”

Edward had stalked her page and knew it was just like something she might say. Not long after that, he screamed as loud as he could. Just something to take the edge off and prepare himself for what was to come.

It wasn’t long and Torrie started screaming too. Long cuts from his dull blade intensified the agony she was going through.

‘Til her dying breath, she called Edward a freak and a loser. Not wise to balance that with begging for her life.

She was already a bloody mess when Edward had heard enough and left one long gash across her throat. Her eyes widened in panic as she gasped for air. Edward could see her pearly white teeth shining as she said, “Flush his ugly face again.”

In no time, she stopped struggling. Now slumped over, Torrie was lifeless. The shock wore off quickly. Replacing it was this rabid fear. Edward walked all over his house looking through the windows.

He washed the blood off his hands in the kitchen sink, then poured himself a glass of orange juice. He didn’t smoke, but was glad to try one of Torrie’s Marlboros. A million thoughts raced through his head. Like before he picked her up, had she mentioned his name to this friend?

What would he do: dismember Torrie or just bury her body somewhere in one piece? With all the hell the kids put him through, Edward could have easily put a few of his father’s handguns in his backpack and went to school and shot up the place. Instead, he took it all out on his would-be childhood sweetheart years later.

Still undecided, he went to bed. The next morning, before leaving for work, he just had to see, once and for all…after all these years, if Torrie had a bush or if she shaved her pussy. He decided he’d drag her whole body out later that night.

On his way out, the old senile neighbor next door says, “Didn’t I see you bring home some snatch last night?” Edward smiles and nods his head. The neighbor laughs and says, “I heard her screaming all night. You must have really been tearing that pussy up.”

Shrugging, he says, “Yeah, you could say that.”

Getting into his car, he drives away hoping his messages, phone calls, and the dick pic doesn’t end up getting him caught.

Robert Ragan, from Lillington, N.C., lives his life for art and writing. He has stories and poetry online at Vext Magazine, Outlaw Poetry, The Dope Fiend Daily, The Rye Whiskey Review, Drinkers Only, Under the Bleachers, Cajun Mutt Press, Synchronized Chaos, and Punk Noir Magazine. Alien Buddha Press has published his short story collection Mannequin Legs and Other Tales.